News Corp Australia has announced two key appointments to its leadership team with MCN’s Danny Lavell (pictured above) joining News Corp as general manager, consortium agencies, while Paul Blackburn (below) has been appointed as general manager, key accounts.

These two new roles follow the recent promotion of Rachel Savio to group general manager, network strategy.

Lavell has been national head of direct sales with MCN for the past four years. He is a highly respected media executive with 20 years experience in both publishing and television, including 16 years at ACP prior to his time with MCN.

Blackburn also has close to 20 years’ experience in media sales, including 10 years with Pacific Magazines before joining NewsLifeMedia as NSW Sales Director in 2012.  In 2015, he became director, sales and strategy and then moved to the role of commercial director – Lifestyle. Most recently, he has been general manager, NSW network sales.

Savio is one of News Corp’s most seasoned sales executives with a number of senior sales roles including national advertising director of The Australian and general manager sales for The Australian, Business Spectator, Eureka Report and WSJ Australia.

News Corp Australia executive general manager network sales Lou Barrett said of the appointments: “I am really excited to welcome Danny to the News Corp team. With this strong network sales leadership team now in place we are well positioned to drive our strategy and work together to achieve excellence and results as we focus on earning the right to be our clients’ primary media and marketing partner.”